1. Field of the Invention
This present invention relates to plunger lift systems for oil and gas wells, and more particularly to a gas lift plunger with an improved assembly arrangement, and is re-filing of Ser. No. 12/313,279, and is a continuation-in-part application of Ser. No. 11/715,216 filed on Mar. 7, 2007 now U.S. Pat. No. 7,748,448 and also of Ser. No. 12/217,756 filed on Jul. 8, 2008 now U.S. Pat. No. 7,793,728, which is a continuation of Ser. No. 11/350,367 filed on Feb. 8, 2006, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,395,865 which was based upon Provisional Patent Application 60/593,914, filed 24 Feb. 2005, each of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
2. Background Art
Plunger lift systems are artificial lift systems for use in oil and gas wells. U.S. Pat. No. 6,200,103 to Bender, incorporated herein by reference, discloses a gas lift plunger having a cylindrically elongated plunger body, in which the plunger is utilized to promote efficiency in producing oil and gas wells. However, this type of plunger is a solid body type of plunger which is subject to wear as the plunger moves up and down inside the conduits of the lift systems of the oil and gas wells.
The peripheral surface of these plungers provide a pressurized gas seal effect between the travelling plunger and the well's pipe or tubing in which the plunger travels. Re-building or re-conditioning typical worn prior art plungers is a time consuming process, and is often necessarily done in properly equipped repair shops, often far away from where the oil and gas wells are located, where tools, parts and good manufacturing processes are necessary for proper re-building of those worn plungers. Often, these worn plungers, which are expensive pieces of equipment, are typically just thrown away, wasting material and wasting natural resources.
It is an object of the present invention to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art.
It is a further object of the present invention, to provide a plunger assembly which may be repaired easily in the field, with minimal tools and equipment, and without wasting time or device components.
It is a further object of the present invention to permit the simple repair and/or replacement of one or more of “wear pads” on a “tubing-worn” plunger in the field, as one or more replacement pads may be needed, without having to dis-assemble and re-assemble the entire plunger to do the job.